Barnes has retired -
@MiketheSnow said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
Real shame
We all have a snipe and a moan, but death threats ffs
I agree. If refs stoop to this level it’s time to retire.
Just putrid behaviour. And almost certainly people making the threats know full well that regardless of the fact they are almost certainly empty, the words create that small element of doubt that they may not be... Hoping that the real reason for his retirement is simply that he reffed a rwc final. Easy for me to say as a South African after Saturday but thanks Wayne for all of the effort in a cauldron of an environment where mistakes aren’t easily forgotten. Hope you carry on reffing club games for fun . Seriously do.
I suspect this was always the plan, but if the death threats etc have had an impact that's a real shame. He's a great ref, will be sorely missed. Anyone who's gone personal with ref abuse needs to take a hard look at themselves and give themselves an uppercut.
Reffing these days is the single hardest job in the game, even this weekend, the vitriol and vehemence with which opinions have been delivered (I'm talking about twitter more than this site) only to be disagreed with with equivalent vehemence and vitriol just shows that abuse and entitlement has gone too far.
To those calling for a winding back of the TMO, you must be aware that the consequence will be more abuse of the man in the middle as inevitably more mistakes are made. We don't live in a sporting world where mistakes are accepted at all, in cricket, football, rugby you name it without tantrums being thrown - it feels difficult to see a return to simpler times.
I will never forgive him for that non-forward pass (1h30m10s YT time)
Barnes was probably the only person in the world who thought that pass was forward. Awful, awful stuff.
Other than that, he was OK, I guess, always thought of him as a bit overrated.
Interesting career arc where his name was stamped in notoriety for 2007 and retires after being involved in another controversial world cup match.
As a whole, bloody good ref, but like any others, he made errors.
It is a drum i keep banging but the rules these guys have to work with certainly don't help them, too much grey area, and that's without getting into the tmo purview that affects them, or the judicial process behind them that often undermines decisions.
As for the threats, in any way, fucking losers.
I honestly thought Wayne has asid at beginning of year this was it, but regardless no doubt the threats etc all had a bearing on it, and right to bring it up. I not surprised these things happen, just read this forum(which I think is the mildest and by far best rugby forum) and see the odd poster saying how they hate someone etc. Look for example the crap posted about Foster etc on here over the last few years, I really find it beyond comprehension how stupid some are with their use of the internet.
His biographer was interviewed on RNZ. The death threats had no bearing on his decision to retire which was made months ago.
Barnes is a Barrister with a relatively young family. He's reffed at 5 RWC's has the record for most tests. It is time to go.
Nevertheless, the online abuse, while it may not have prompted Barnes' retirement is inexcusable.
@sparky said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
What a wanker! Fucked the ABs over in 2007 big time.
Yes. There was the forward pass which he missed despite his AR being right there and of course him refusing your boys the option of a DG. All down to him.
Barnes was a really good ref, reffing at the hardest time in the history of the sport. Wish him all the best, and he's right to call out the abuse.
@sparky said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
What a wanker! Fucked the ABs over in 2007 big time.
I've always maintained if that had happened to a British team or SA he'd have been hounded out of the game. No way in hell the Saffas would have accepted him to ref them ever again. And tbh I don't blame them.
As to the online abuse, the internet and social media have always been a sewer in that regard. Not sure why people are continually shocked after a quarter century.
I don't think he's ever been a good referee. When pushed the only aspect people say to me in the positive are "he's a good communicator" and "lets the game flow".
Saying "sorry" or "that's not how I saw it" isn't an acceptable standard at Test level for getting things obviously wrong. Letting the game flow is a predictable outcome from a person who gets overwhelmed at ruck time and either doesn't make a good decision, or makes no decision at all. In that respect he hadn't changed despite refereeing hundreds of first class games.
In some respects this isn't all his fault with the gin-soaked morons in puzzle palace coming up with increasingly daft and contradictory solutions to improve the game, but he is the man out in the middle with the whistle and last I checked, he gets to make the final decision.
Is he better than some of the others? No doubt. But how low are we setting the bar with Williams, Carley, Way etc. ?
More broadly this is proof that you have to be Egon Seconds or Rasta Rasivhenge bad to get sacked and herein lies the real problem: Once a union has identified and invested in you (a game of politics even in the beginning of a ref's career), you're pretty much on the path regardless. In the professional era, rugby needs to move on from the amateur mindset that refs can't be publicly criticised.
As to online abuse, what Wayne speaks of following the France vs South Africa game last year, that's despicable.
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
@sparky said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
What a wanker! Fucked the ABs over in 2007 big time.
I've always maintained if that had happened to a British team or SA he'd have been hounded out of the game. No way in hell the Saffas would have accepted him to ref them ever again. And tbh I don't blame them.
As to the online abuse, the internet and social media have always been a sewer in that regard. Not sure why people are continually shocked after a quarter century.
@Catogrande said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
@sparky said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
What a wanker! Fucked the ABs over in 2007 big time.
Yes. There was the forward pass which he missed despite his AR being right there and of course him refusing your boys the option of a DG. All down to him.
The forward pass wasn't the complaint by most people (including Graham Henry). It was the AR (Kaplan IIRC) that missed / ignored it, as you say.
It was Barnes swallowing his whistle that was the problem. Multiple clear and obvious offences that weren't given. Unduly influenced by a rabid French crowd probably. They conceded only 2 penalties FFS! He simply wasn't ready to have been appointed that match, so I have always blamed Paddy O'Brien as much as Barnes.
Keep mentioning the forward pass as the only event if you like, because he did miss that too.
The ABs also have their highest percentage of losses under him than any other ref, so personally I won't miss him. He certainly wasn't the worst around. Would have preferred Nige any time though.
As for death threats - he has never been on my list...(joking, that is complete bullshit). I knew a Bryce Lawrence (not the ref) and he had death threat calls in the middle of the night from Sth Africa. He was an eighty year old man. Pillocks.
@MN5 said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
@Rancid-Schnitzel said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
@sparky said in Wayne Barnes gooone!:
What a wanker! Fucked the ABs over in 2007 big time.
I've always maintained if that had happened to a British team or SA he'd have been hounded out of the game. No way in hell the Saffas would have accepted him to ref them ever again. And tbh I don't blame them.
As to the online abuse, the internet and social media have always been a sewer in that regard. Not sure why people are continually shocked after a quarter century.
I cant stop reading this with a lisp, exactly as Mike Tyson would